[Case presentation with critical analysis of Maurice Ravel's neurological disease]

In the last 4 years of his life, the famous French composer Maurice Ravel (1875-1937) was afflicted with a progressive neurological illness that destroyed his artistic realization but preserved his musical sensibility and judgment. He died after craniotomy. An attempt has been made to compare conflicting testimonies and to correct erroneous accounts of the events in order to refine the differential diagnosis of Ravel's presenile decline. Moreover, in the last decades new neurological entities have been described which prompted an update on the exact nature of his illness. The composer probably suffered from corticobasal degeneration. However, in the absence of a post-mortem examination, the diagnosis must remain speculative.